Today marks the one year anniversary of the launch of NewsON, a new FREE streaming service that connects people to local news coverage from 170 local TV news stations nationwide.
“Since launching NewsON a year ago, we have become an invaluable service for people across the nation,” said Louis Gump, CEO of NewsON. “The many accomplishments that we have been able to achieve, including our media and broadcast partnerships, significant viewer growth, and rapid expansion of our station roster, are great milestones for our company and the people we are helping to connect to their communities and the news they care about.”
NewsON was formed by way of partnership with the ABC Owned Television Station Group, Cox Media Group, Hearst Television, Hubbard Broadcasting, Media General and Raycom Media. The partnership group has since grown to eight strategic investorswith the addition of Sinclair Broadcast Group and Capitol Broadcasting Company. Additional content partners include Berkshire Hathaway, Dispatch Broadcast Group, Forum Communications, Meredith Corporation, Graham Media Group, TEGNA, and Nexstar.
NewsON’s success and achievements since its launch are attributed to the immense support from consumers, industry professionals, media, and broadcast partners. NewsON has grown its company, services and contribution to communities nationwide with notable milestones along the way:
- Market Growth: NewsON’s nationwide lineup of local news increased from 118 participating stations covering 75% of the U.S. to 170 stations covering 83% of the U.S. population. It now has local news broadcasts available in 107 U.S. markets – including 48 of the top 50 and 88 of the top 100. NewsON consumer usage has been strong as well with over 40M minutes consumed in the past month.
- Product Enhancements: NewsON’s product enhancements have been made with the user in mind to provide a new level of accessibility that makes watching local news convenient. Among other things, NewsON developed multi-station breaking news alerts in its mobile app, which have played a valuable role in the coverage of breaking news events including Hurricane Matthew. On its Roku channel, NewsON added the ability to watch local news clips from participating stations. Additionally, viewers can now access NewsON’s local news video clips from across the country in one convenient location at NewsON.us. NewsON has recently been made available on Amazon Fire Tablets as well.
- Community Involvement: During the midst of Hurricane Matthew, NewsON helped with the recovery of affected communities by donating to relief efforts on behalf of its viewers. NewsON played a critical role in keeping people informed with breaking news and alerts during the hurricane and called for national participation with its awareness campaign. During this campaign $1 per NewsON app download was pledged to help aid those who were affected, culminating in a $10,000 donation to Habitat for Humanity International.
- Award Recognition: NewsON was named “Best App” in the 2016 Consumer World Awards, which honors excellence in every facet of the consumer industry including products, people behind the successes and best companies.
- Industry Leadership: NewsON presented its industry insights through trade conferences at NAB 2016, Advanced Television Systems Committee Broadcast Television Conference, Broadcast Innovations, News Technology Summit, NAB Small Market Television Exchange, NATPE Miami Market & Conference, and the Technology Leadership Summit.
The NewsON app is available for Apple iPhone and iPad, Android phone and tablet, Amazon Fire tablets, and on the Roku platform on Roku players and Roku TVs.
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